PandaBot seeks Kickstarter funding to make 3D printing affordable

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You have probably heard all the fuss about 3D printers for the last couple of years. But if you’ve even causally investigated what it would take to dive head first into this emerging technology, you probably dealt with a little sticker shock. Even the fairly consumer-friendly MakerBot costs upwards of $2,000. A new Kickstarter is aiming to bring 3D printing to the masses with the PandaBot, and it’s already getting some traction.

PandaBot is a 3D printer being pitched as affordable and easy to use. Like similar devices, it heats and extrudes plastic to build items described by digital 3D model files. It uses ABS plastic, which is fairly common, but it has only one print head. Newer and more expensive 3D printers have multiple heads for different colors or materials.

The print area of the PandaBot is fairly good — 11-inches on a side. What makes a good printer is not just the size of the objects you can make, but the precision with which they are printed. The PandaBot has a layer thickness of 0.1mm, or 100-micrometers. This is, in fact, the same thickness being touted in the new MakerBot. The idea with the PandaBot is that you will just plug it into your USB port, load up a standard 3D modeling file, and let it go.

If you want to get in on the Kickstarter, you can toss the folks at Panda Robotics a few dollars just for good will. If you want a PandaBot of your very own, you can sign up for the $800 level. This gets a unit shipped to you in the US around February 2013. At $1,000 you get a special edition PandaBot that comes with a cool paint job. If you spend $4,000-6,000 the team will invite you to tour the facility and have lunch before picking up your PandaBot.

$800 is still a lot of money, but there was a time that inkjet printers cost a pretty penny, too. The Kickstarter has pulled in over $14,000 of its $50,000 goal with 29 days left to go.

Speak Your Mind

Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, and other crowd funding sites offer a convenient venue to folks who want others to help bring an idea to the marketplace. However, as is the case with most marketing services, using these sites yields no guarantee that lots of people will see and take note of the idea being presented. It is for this reason, together with the associated site fees, that Eon Puzzle is attempting the presentation task apart from established crowd funding venues. Will the attempt be successful?